The Gaslight Anthem Band • Page 116

I definitely agree with the idea that most bands would kill to have their 'worst' album be as good as Get Hurt. I think it's absolutely stacked with fantastic songs. It's just never worked for me as a cohesive album. It's always been just shy of it and it's why I've tinkered with the trackiist so much trying to make it work. If these songs were no good it wouldn't matter and I wouldn't keep coming back to them, but they are, and I absolutely do.

I edited this to add the fact that I tried a new tracklist that contains both 1,000 Years and Mama's Boys. It's 13 tracks and I was struggling to keep it 12 like the original album and because I have OCD tendencies.

 

I don't really think track list is Get Hurt's problem. You could give it to me 6 different ways I don't think I'd like it any more. Just my opinion though.

 

I feel like with Get Hurt, Brian was leaning more towards the sounds we would get on his solo records (see: the b sides). It feels like those aspirations were tempered by having to appease the guys in the band as well as the Gaslight fanbase.

Tracks like Mama’s Boys and Sweet Morphine are amazing but I don’t think they would ever fit with a majority of the other songs.

 

Every time this thread gets bumped with people slandering Get Hurt, I spend a good half hour writing out a paragraph about why it’s their best album and how I don’t understand anyone who feels otherwise, but I always end up deleting it because I know my truth and that’s good enough for me.

 

This just in - People have differing opinions about what records are best in a band's discography. More at 11.

 

Damn news to me

 

I love Get Hurt so you're not alone. Just wish it had a different album cover.

 

I love Get Hurt. I do agree the album flow isn’t as smooth as the previous albums, but the individual tracks are some of Gaslight’s greats.

 

I fully agree with that. I use the white-on-red deluxe one in my iTunes, but even that one’s pretty bad.

 

Sometimes i make myself feel better about the Get Hurt reception by imagining how forums would have reacted to Nebraska in 1982

 

Ian Cohen probably would have hated that too

 

I think my main issue with GH is that I don’t like it musically. A lot of the songs are just boring to me knowing what this band can do. I really like the lyrical content of it, it’s dark and personal, and I just think Brian would have done better with this album as a solo effort, and not trying to make it a Gaslight record, if that makes sense. This record almost seemed forced to be a Gaslight record. I think it would have been a much better solo record.

 

I definitely don't think it's their best album but I totally respect anyone who does. I don't by any means think it's a bad album. I think Alba hit the nail on the head in that Brian was starting to move towards the sounds and styles he would explore in his solo albums but this had to be a 'Gaslight' album and had to work for the other three guys in the band and came with all sorts of expectations as such. I think it's pretty telling that they went on indefinite hiatus shortly after.

The thing that really piques my interest was when Brian referred to Get Hurt as 'incomplete'. I would love to pick his brain about what he meant by that and what he felt was left on the table so to speak after that album was said and done.

 

I agree with this. Those 2 plus Have Mercy could all have been on a BF solo album.

 

And Get Hurt is awesome. 5th best is nothing to be ashamed of when you consider the quality of #1-4

I think it's a lot closer to Handwritten in quality than most others do. And if I could make my own personal 12 track album out of the 16, and dump the few I don't love, it probably would be.

 

Get Hurt is by no means terrible for me, I adore a good majority of that album. I associate a place and time with it and every summer I crave hearing those tracks.

I’d put it 4th on the ranking above Sink or Swim, which sounds unfair to Sink or Swim but I enjoy both these albums more than some band’s top albums.

 

GH and SoS are both fine albums but i really think the other 3 albums are just so good that it places them in a whole other bracket entirely. It's almost unfair to compare GH to 59 Sound or Handwritten, because IMO it makes GH look awful in comparison but its really not THAT bad an album.

 

its not that GH is a bad album, it's that the other albums are THAT freaking good.

 

Goddamn do I I love me some Sink or Swim. I get passionate about defending it the same way a lot of the people who love Get Hurt do when people trash talk it. Yeah the production isn't the most fancy but the songs are great. It might be my favorite record to blast at ridiculously high volume in the car and just scream my heart out and sing along to.

 

Sink or Swim is the one that namechecks places in NJ the most, and I deeply appreciate that about it

 

the last date of Brian’s tour is 5/2 in Brooklyn, a month to the day they play Gov Ball in NYC. is it too much to hope we get a surprise in the encore? yes. am i gonna hope for it anyways and disappoint myself deeply? yes.

 

Sink or Swim is still my favorite Gaslight full length. Senor was a great blend of Sink or Swim and '59 Sound and probably my favorite release.

 

Listened to that No Plus Ones with Brian last night and his speaking voice sounds way different than I thought it would

 

Wanted to stop into this thread and recommend the new Nine Eighteen album - 12 Fluid Ounces. Real strong Sink or Swim era vibe from it.

 

so, like, we will be seeing Gaslight soon and stuff.

internal screaming